Intrigued by its description on websites, including the best French RPG website: Le Guide Du Roliste Galactique, I ordered it and received it a few days ago.

Since I've received it I'm really captivated by it and can't wait to organize a party with my usual RPG team

Little Fears takes you back to a time most of us have quite totally forgotten, a time when we asked our parents to keep the light on or the door opened cause we KNEW there was a monster under our bed, waiting for the darkness to torment us. A time when whatever our parents say we KNEW it was not only shadows but real monsters we saw from the window on the windy night, monsters we also heard knocking on the thin window. or calling us ...

Remember ? oh come on ...

The game master book starts with a few first and last pages of a young girl in her brand new diary.

The least we can say is that it makes a quite powerful introduction, putting you at once in the universe of the game which is really closer to Call Of Cthulhu RPG, except that it would be an error to only see in Little Fears a kid versions of Call Of Cthulhu RPG.

A link would be that if you were already used to not get very attached to your character in Cthulhu's universe, well, in Little Fears your character is ... a child between 8 and 12 years old with all the muscle and charisma which that suppose. I've not yet played it but from what I've read, I think that as a player you'll realize quickly that your character is very weak.

The other point is that very few people knows about Closetland, the land of the monsters and all children's fears. This 'child Hell' is ruled by the Demagogue, served by Seven Kings: demonic beings personifying the Seven Deadly sins (with a little difference for the French edition which I'll tell you later in the subject). Which makes these monsters hungry is Innocence and therefore, children are their favorite preys.

Adults know nothing about the world of the Demagogue as they have lost their innocence and their won't be of much support, getting angry by crying children or even separating children from their parents as they only explain their injuries by mistreatment of the parents, whatever the monsters tells the children will say... Also, Demagogue and his kings' agents are far to be only monsters.

Little Fears wrote:"Most are monstrosities, much like the kings themselves, twisted and blistered caricatures. But some some of them we see every day. At the bus stop, on the subway, in the stores. Our co-workers and bosses. Even those we gladly let into our homes All of them are at the beck and call of their wicked master. All of them thrive and burn with a single goal: the elimination of the Demagogue's only thorn: innocence"

So children have to be very careful and cannot find much help except with other children as weak as they are themselves ...

The creation of the character is very easy with a little questionnaire which allows the player to define his character by also dispatching a few points in characteristics (shrewdness , muscles, hands, feet and spirit) and virtues (soul, innocence and fear) completed by qualities ("I am courageous") and default ("I'm a scream-queen").

Then the game is played thanks to 6 faces dices with a system of tests and exams (when the action implies roll over between players and/or from the GM).

With the agreement of the author, the king of Luxury (symbol for pedophilia) is replaced by the king of Suffering which makes a little change in the universe but finally well explained (I don't know for the German version), and for what I've read from original version's players even an improvement as in fact children don't know about this except if they have been confronted to it and even if it's a subject which should not be censored, quoting a critic I've read: "The question of whether a given group of players would feel comfortable talking about this subject matter over the dice and beer is another matter".

Whatever the king of Suffering is not much an improvement for the kids as in order to capture their innocence he'll do what and his envoys will do what they can to lead their targets in a dead-end from where the only escape is suicide...

The challenge here will be to obtain the atmosphere and keep it existing as, all RPG players know that often people get easily distracted and jokes for example are exchanged during a party which could really be disastrous for a party of Little Fears.

I'll tell you again when I'll have finally mastered a party but for now I am very optimistic and full of ideas. I found the world very reach, a world which certainly interests all Tim Burton's fans for sure

If you're on the track of an original RPG, you might be interested by Little Fears

Although I can't help to wonder what kind of adventures could take place in such a universe. What is the typical plot like ? I mean, you cannot dream to defeat the Demagogue and it's minions, do you ? So appart from running away from the newest monster the GM describes, and rolling dice to check if your character's heart can handle the level of fear he's experiencing, I don't see very well what kind of story could be told.

Anyway, I would be very interested in giving it a try, as I have long dreamed of a really "atmospheric" game played by a good group of players that would take the game seriously enough to experience really strong feelings.

On the other hand, I always was very disappointed by RPGs as I take for a fact that when playing with friends, you always end up screwing the atmosphere the GM strives to set up, because there will be always something that takes you out of it : be it the jokes exchanged between players, two or more players chatting during the game session to catch up with each other since the last time they met (they're friends, after all), the mundane needs of the party (drink, food, cigarette/coffee/pee break, etc.), or the friendly environment. The worst thing is, as paradoxical as it may seem, I'm one of the first jackasses to ruin a good game atmosphere by cracking some silly joke, probably to avoid getting too serious and too involved in the game.

Well going after a Demagogue's King is nothing but suicide indeedy but, something I've not yet told about and I thank you to remind it to me is: the power of "like if".

This is the magic in Little Fears, the only very strong power of a child against the monster. If oldest children are stronger physically speaking the fact the are less "innocent" make this magical power weakest but it still exists.

What is the power of "like if" ? Well it's very simple, it's directly linked to the child's faith in some events which must exist as it can't be else.

A teddy bear protect his owner not because of special powers but because every young children know a teddy bear protects his owner. Get it ?

The fact is that it's not always working and the GM has to roll dices to know if it works or not. Shouldn't it work, the child would lose faith in this artifacts, starting to get all is not exactly how he expects it to be, and then, lose some of his innocence (after 10 dispointments, the child loses one point of Innocence).

Should it work and the child has a strong ally and if many children use the power of "like if" together they can unleashed very strong powers.

Actually it's kind alike Stephen King's It except that the child cannot makes himself believe something he knows at first to be wrong. I mean if he says loudely that his airspray for asthma contains sulfuric acid it won't work, but if another child has given him this spray telling him that it contained in fact a very powerfull weapon against monster, it has big chances to be as efficient as the child is sure it is. Get it ?

To get back about the game system, the GM has, if he manages to, roll dices even before the player says it as the player. It belongs to the player to remind several times that he believes in his teddy bear, or in his action-Joe, his sacred plastic sword, and so on so the GM can anticipate this potential help.

Also religious faith can play an important roll as well if the child uses to pray a lot for example.

About the atmosphere yup I'm also worried about the capacity to create and, most of all, maintain it. We'll have to give it a try to know

Last edited by Chevalier Bayard on Mon 02 Apr, 2007 10:43, edited 1 time in total.